Review on Enhanced ANNKE H.265+ Security Camera System: PIR, 4pcs 5MP Wired IP67 Waterproof CCTV Outdoor Cameras 🎥 with Motion Sensing Warning Light, 8CH Expandable 5MP Lite Video DVR Recorder - 2TB Hard Drive Included by Chris Smotherman

Fair warning, this is quite a long review. If you'd like, you can skip the backstory and jump straight to the review just below. It's okay, I don't mind. I just think a little context was needed. Background Right off the bat, I would like to state that this is the review of a family man who is also in the technology industry. This is my 6th CCTV unit (3rd Annke) that I have bought in over 10 years. Most of these purchases were a direct result of upgrading my cameras and DVRs; started with an unnamed 960H, upgraded to Annke 720p, then Amcrest 1080p, quickly bought an Amcrest 4K kit before going back to this Annke 5MP unit in resolution. I digress because 5MP is technically a lower resolution than 4K, but 5MP is still more than enough for what I'm using it for. There were two more purchases, but they turned out to be replacements for bad blocks from what I already had on hand. I also bought several separate cameras for these kits, mainly because I was experimenting with different camera types and/or lens angles. I have also purchased several standalone WiFi cameras from Annke and Amcrest. In case you missed it, I'm a fan of the Annke and Amcrest brands of consumer video surveillance kits. In my opinion they both make great SOHO CCTV kits that are often the same in quality and price. Now that I created this mini story in my CCTV adventures, let's move on to the actual review. REVIEW Prior to this Annke 5MP unit I was using an Amcrest 4K that had less than 1 year of runtime. I was happy with the quality of the video I captured with the device, but was completely dissatisfied with the device's motion detection feature. This is not a unique problem for Amcrest, MANY consumer video surveillance products use digital motion detection for their alarm system. For those of you who don't know, digital motion detection is essentially based on the fact that the DVR detects pixel changes from the camera to determine if there is motion. This is effective to a point, but anyone who's ever fiddled with the settings to set up "motion detection" thresholds will quickly find that getting it set up properly is almost impossible. You either set the settings low enough that a freight train could pass in front of the camera with a 50/50 chance of being detected as moving, or you learn to ignore dozens if not hundreds of false alarms, from flashes to to moths, once a particle of dust that flew up very close to the lens as it was flooded with IR rays. On the video it looked like a slowly moving shooting star. ADVANTAGES This is where this Annke module outperforms most other devices, the cameras in this kit are equipped with built-in PIR sensors. Passive infrared radiation (PIR) is based on infrared light (heat) emitted by an object. This is the same sensor used in street traffic lights. All of the cameras in the kit I bought come with built-in PIR sensors as well as a fairly bright white LED. On its own it's a solid deterrent to intruders, motion is detected, lights turn on and hopefully intruders think twice before moving on. This block goes one step further by enabling the "false alarm filter” in the DVR motion detection menu options. . These two things have effectively eliminated 90-95% of all the false positives I've had with every DVR I've tried over the years. This is also the main reason why I let go of the 4K video surveillance device I used to be using, which was generating 30-40 false alarms every night, often nothing more than a bug flying across the screen. Now when the PIR sensors transmit data to the DVR, motion detection alarms will only go off when heat and motion are detected. The camera's PIR sensor has a good range, I tested it at the extreme limits of the sensor and it managed to catch me every time. However, it was also caused by some cars passing in front of my street. Not all cars, mind you, just a few that I believe get hot enough to trigger the camera's IR sensor at +30 feet. For example, I received a traffic alert when a local garbage truck pulled up in the middle of the day. This only happened once but I suspect the heat from the motor that day was enough to trigger the PIR sensor. In addition, an actually working motion detection facility enabled the activation of the motion-based recording schedule. I avoided this option as I've only had issues with previous devices, but this one seems to work fine. When only the motion schedule recording is enabled, the wear and tear on the DVR's hard disk is greatly reduced. Which I think is another improvement of this DVR. Looks like someone really spent some time improving the device's graphical menu. The different sections and settings are much easier to find. Setting up email notifications was easy: popular email hosts (Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo) were pre-populated. The web interface has also been improved. Video playback has become more responsive; In fact, I can watch videos while the device is actively recording without any significant lag. Annke Vision's mobile app really works; Amcrest broke them after a recent update and was still broken at the time of writing this review. THE BAD There is very little I don't like about this set, but the three things that stand out to me the most are the reason I gave it four stars. Overview.1) The current DVR model (DW81KD) that comes with this kit does NOT come with rear center alarm wiring. They left an option to set it up in the operating system, but it fails when you try to use it because it doesn't see any signal cables on it. This has been pretty much standard on almost every CCTV I've owned, but for some reason Annke decided not to include it in this model. This is something I've usually ignored as previous devices were too buggy to even consider connecting to an alarm system, but PIR cameras have solved most false alarm problems. So why remove this feature now? 2) As mentioned earlier, setting up email alerts is quite simple and straightforward. They also include a handy feature for capturing 2-5 second bursts of triggered images. Everything is fine except that the image sent via email is a low resolution of 352 pixels (W) x 240 pixels (H). Great that these are tiny images that can be quickly downloaded via a mobile device, but they could be a bit larger. Amcrest offers much higher resolution images in its email alerts. Depending on the Amcrest device, it was possible to adjust the size of the images that were captured and emailed. Let's hope this gets fixed with the new firmware. However, I'm using the latest version currently available (V3.5.37 Build 190330) and the option to resize the image is currently unavailable. Please fix this. DANGEROUS and #33) I mistakenly bought an 8 channel but only 4 camera CCTV kit. I also bought 2 separate 1080p headlight cameras which had PIR sensors but were not compatible with the DVR's "false alarm filter". In the end we returned the 1080p spotlight cameras and contacted customer service to order 4 additional 5MP IR cameras compatible with the dash cam. However, the customer service was excellent and I am completely satisfied with the service provided, but all this ordeal has drawn attention to the way Annke sells her products. Look for loose cameras from Amcrest, Night Owl, or any other major consumer CCTV brand and you'll find dozens; Dome, Bullet, POE etc. Now search for Annke security cameras and you can find 3 or 4 peaks. Even on their website they only offer a limited selection of individual cameras, but good luck trying to find ones that are compatible with the security kits sold on Revain. However, I temporarily used my existing Amcrest 4K and 1080p cameras while waiting for Annke to receive the ones I ordered in the mail. Annke DVR had no problem, at least with these cameras, not sure what other brands you can use with this unit. Again, I'm not sure if the customer service process I went through is the norm or a courtesy they did for me due to my order failing. In any case, I recommend buying a one-to-one camera kit. CONCLUSION You've come this far, I know I've had a lot to say, but hopefully this Annke 5MP IR Module will be the last surveillance device. I will buy a set in time. From the looks of it, I've already recommended it to quite a few people since installing it earlier this month. I think the incorporation of IR sensors linked to the false alarm filter in the cameras has made this the best SOHO CCTV kit I have ever bought. I'd rather stick with 4K but honestly I can't tell much of a difference. What matters is that it captures better than 1080p, which is more than I need.